feminism, motherhood, writing

Former Ukip councillor Stephen Searle strangled his wife Anne to death. According to the forensic pathologist who worked on the case, the victim “would have lost consciousness after about eight to 15 seconds of pressure”, with death requiring “further sustained pressure for a period of minutes”.

It is a long time to be holding someone down, waiting for them to die. Then again, as Searle’s friend Bill Mountford, former leader of Ukip at Suffolk County Council, puts it, “these things happen”.

They happen quite a lot, at least if you are a woman trying to leave a man. Two women are killed each week by a former or current partner in England and Wales and the most dangerous time for a woman in an abusive relationship is when she is trying to leave.